Frank used to say there was only one railroad; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary.

The Railroad goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Railroad has gone,
And I must follow, [so says the DM],
Pursuing it with [weary] feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? [Gandalf will] say.

Brilliance. It all sounds so simple right now! I’ve had players do this to me – a number of times, although they use a bit more in-char reasoning to hide the metagaming – and often I change the storyline around because their idea sounds as good as mine…shame to waste that kind of creativity, right?

“So, what I’m afraid of right now is that this ‘abandoned mine’ has been taken over by something. Kobolds or something.”
*DM tries to hide nod*
“Or maybe they dug up a demon.”
*furious scribbling*

What I hate is when you spend ages crafting a masterful plotline, with twists and turns, and the players just assume that you figured everything out, ad-lib style, just to fit in with their character’s actions.

You have to worry when the DM's railroading gets so obvious the players know which NPC is going to be used to get that train back on track.

Well it isn’t as if the DM here has used a broad range of NPCs for the purpose. It’s been Gandalf, Gandalf, Gandalf, and, oh yes- Gandalf. If he’s not using Gandalf, he’s usually just telling the players directly, “Look, you’re going here. Period.”

And as for why Gimli’s in the King’s chair- he’s not. He’s in the Steward’s chair. King’s chair is up a half dozen steps and to the right.

Face it, the DM is just linking store bought modules anyway. It really doesn’t matter much whether the players follow the DM’s plot or make up their own, as long as they get to the next adventure, it’s all good!

Unless the DM is a good literary type person. Games can be predictable at times.

I had the rare luck of playing in a group for 6 months on Vampire the Masquerade with a DM who was a English Lit Major and was an awesome horror writer. Unfortunately, the game broke up when he quit because a douchebag in the group slashed his tires for killing off the guy’s character.

Once you get caught up in a good story line by a decent writer, you are spoiled for any other DM.

@ Oorlof *Furious Scribbling* I have done that soo many times when Dm’ing, unfortunately one of my players always has the idea i had, but somehow ups it one worse. (As soon as i place this gem in this statue this thing is going to come to life and kill us)Well, not kill, more… actaully… (Furious scribbling).
Then of course, the improv campaign, (we had a bunch of Mage Knights Minitures, and when a player would start messing around with the ones not in use, it would be noted and used in the short future.) Needless to say, the giant flying deamon got used rather often. I loved that deamon.

Jack@16:
What makes a ‘good DM’ the one who prewrites the whole campaign. Good DMing involves creating a pleasurable game for the players. And making them think they are genious sleuths can be part of that. I have worked a scam multiple times in both D&D and Champions:
1) Run a few adventures, throwing out meaningless plot threads that don’t lead anywhere.
2) Listen to the players as they try to link them up. Keep track of the best ideas that link the most ones and would be fun to play, and fit in with your overall background.
3) Take the one you like best and make it ‘the solution to the mystery’. One or more of your players feel an intense rush of accomplishment and satisfaction because they ‘solved it’ and saved the game.
4) Keep your yap shut. Never let on to ANYBODY that’s what you did.
I’d like to claim credit for this, but a husband-and-wife team of DM’s whose name I forgot had the basic outline on a website ten or twelve years ago. It works like a charm.

One similar nugget I learned is that when you present the players with a tight situation, let them come up with alternatives. It doesn’t matter what they are, but the first two never work — it’s the THIRD idea that’s the magic bullet.

Congratulations! You outthought the master villain by masquerading as security guards; he never planned against that brilliant tactic.

I agree, Isoyami. That’s such a horrible thing to do in a well told story- but I’ve seen times when it was the only way to keep things together. :)

Oh, and I never let the GM overhear my predictions. If they’re accurate, he’ll be bitter about being predictable, And a bitter GM is dangerous. If they’re not what he had in mind, they’re probably *worse*, so he’ll use them and let everyone know it’s my fault. Lose-lose situation; don’t go there. :)

What I noticed about the screen caps is that if you look carefully, you can see that Gimli is the tallest actor in the room. He’s sitting and two steps up, but he’s sort of slouching. So his head is lower than Legolas, but if he stood up and stretched his long legs, you can just make out that he would be taller than the elf.

After the day I’ve had today, this is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered. Shamus you’re and absolute genius! Nostradamus indeed lol :) Thanks for making this entire strip, and I suspect the next idea that rolls out of your fingers and onto the webpage will be just as good if not better! Thanks for brightening my day sir! /salute!

Wouldn’t it have been easier from the get-go for the Dm to simply “geas” the players into fulfilling their destinies?

[not trolling, not picking on anyone]

I have to admit to being confused about the “railroading” thing now (mostly because it seems to have an elastic definition in these hallowed halls). If a group of players and a DM have embarked upon an adventure but the players cannot keep track due to extreme ADD, player unavailability etc. how is them wandering off and freelancing the plot better? If the point of this game (as opposed to that one) is to achieve strategic result “x”, if the players can’t keep it straight (and I’ve been there myself) isn’t it better to adjust the complexity of the intelocking scenarios rather than having the players wing it? I mean, the point of the game is not only to get XPs but to get them en-route to “x”, right?

Otherwise, why bother with campaign style games at all?

I mean, I know why the “Rings” campaign is failing, and I know that Shamus is pointing out the weaknesses of the players on both sides of the screen that have unfortunately met in this train wreck of a game, but I cannot for the life of me understand where some of the commentators over the last year are coming from.

The one Gimli didn’t point out: They got Gandalf to sacrifice himself for the rest of the group, and then everything went to heck (Legolas killed Gollum, and all four hobbits quit). Obviously, the DM needed some way to get his campaign back on (the railroad) track, so let’s bring Gandalf back!

As all DM’s know, you should not just railroad your players, you must also make the railroad go through a tunnel, and close all the stations allong the route. If you don’t players tend to start doing weird things, like having FUN!

Frank used to say there was only one railroad; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary.

The Railroad goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Railroad has gone,
And I must follow, [so says the DM],
Pursuing it with [weary] feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? [Gandalf will] say.

The Gimli moment is one I’ve witnessed tableside many times, someone getting the right idea for the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, the inverse is far more common. The player will take the right clues, the right reasoning, and come up with a conclusion that, while reasonable, is so completely different than what you’d thought up that it threatens to upend the plot. Either way, fun times (for us PC’s at least).

These comics are just so much fun! You have great skill of getting the right screen caps for the right lines. Like Aragorn s and Legolas’s expression on the small frames in the middle. Keep up the great work!